US foreign policy

A postscript to my post on US treatment of North Korea yesterday.

In a review of The State of Africa: The First Fifty Years of Independence by Martin Meredith in the Financial Times (their Saturday magazine book review section is almost uniformly excellent), Paul Nugent writes:

"Some of of anecdotes are priceless. One of my favourites is the story of Richard Nixon flattering Mobutu in 1970: 'I find in studying your administration that you not only have a balanced budget but a favourable balance of trade and I would like to know your secret before meeting with the cabinet.'"
(Free registration may be required for the FT.)

If Mobutu is before your time, see here for why this is so sickening, or indeed look at the state of Congo today, courtesy of the CIA, with an estimated per capita GDP of $700.